Here goes. Cast your votes via this Doodle link -- vote for as many or as few artists as you wish, and we'll see how the numbers shake out. (Typically, artists require 50%+ support to be nominated and the top 5-7 get in, unless Jann Wenner decides otherwise.)
First-time nominees include Heart, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, The Cure, The Spinners, Eric B. & Rakim, Guns N' Roses, the Small Faces/Faces, Rufus with Chaka Khan, and Freddie King. The Beasties and Chilis return to the ballot, as do Donna Summer, Donovan, Laura Nyro, and War.
[First-time eligibles this year but not nominated include Crowded House, Guided by Voices, the Jayhawks, Lyle Lovett, Salt N Pepa, Soundgarden, They Might Be Giants, and Yo La Tengo.]
Vote early, defend your choices here, and rock on.
Despite the awfulness of Chinese Democracy, G'n'R should be a mortal lock first ballot, though only the lineup through Spaghetti Incident, but I woulda thought the Beasties would be as well. The Cure ought to be in, but may be a little tricky, since their style is different from the rest.
ReplyDeleteSmall class for me this year; two locks (Beastie Boys and G&R) and three I wavered over (The Cure, RHCP and Heart). But boy, there are a lot of not-quites this year for me; Joan Jett and Laura Nyro (it's awful, I know, but if Nyro had had one more great album she'd be over the hump for me). Interesting that no one so far has voted for War.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as usual, Jann Wenner hates Rush.
Can someone explain why G&R is a lock? I don't get it. G&R seems to me more as a band that didn't really live up to its potential, with no good explanation for that failure. But this whole institution is a sham of a mockery etc. The yearly omission of Rush is a running joke at this point.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Hall that regards peak value as incredibly important -- Buffalo Springfield, the Velvet Underground, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are all in. Under that standard, you could legitimately say "when GNR was big, they were really big" and induct them as reflecting the peak of late-80s/early-90s rock.
ReplyDeleteI didn't vote for them, but I understand.
I'm surprised at the lack of love for Donna Summer. To me, the arguments for her and GnR are similar--they helped to define their genre and/or their era, and were once one of the most popular acts in the country. But then, I'm a "big tent" Hall of Fame guy.
ReplyDeleteSince I don't think an artist or band still in mid-career (or even mid-to-late career) should be in the HoF, I'll reserve judgment on the Cure, the Beasties, the RHCPs and G'n'R. All will eventually get in at some point, but there's no reason to rush the process.
ReplyDeleteOf the remaining acts, the only obvious choices are the Small Faces -- particularly when combined with the Rod Stewart-Ron Wood-led Faces; the Steve Marriott edition deserves enshrinement all by itself -- and Donna Summer.
The Small Faces had a short career, particularly compared with the bands with which they are typically grouped (the Who, the Kinks), but no English band other than the Move (who should be in the HoF, but that's for another day) better typified the rapid-fire shifts in musical taste and fashion of the 1960's. The original Small Faces were the mod band, even more than the Who; their devotion to American soul and R&B music certainly influenced, if not jump-started outright, the Northern Soul movement. Later, once they'd freed themselves from manager Don Arden (later Ozzy Osbourne's father-in-law, and the Suge Knight of his day, with a heavy dose of Morris Levy added), they signed with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records, and made not only one of the lasting psychedelic LP's of the era -- Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, the one with the round cover -- but "Tin Soldier," a rock and roll single so perfect that, even today, it's unimaginable that it never made any impact on the U.S. charts, even during the most competitive period in Top 40 history.
The later Faces, with Rod the Mod and Woody, were a tremendously underrated group, and tended to get overshadowed by the success Stewart and Wood had apart from the band, but their influence is obvious (and not just in the realm of substance-related deportment) on every band wrongly described as "Stones-y," not to mention on the Replacements and Nikki Sudden/Jacobites. I don't know that I'd enshrine the Faces based solely on their post-Marriott work, but combining the Small Faces and the Faces yields a decade-long career of unquestionable worth. Easily the most qualified of this year's nominees.
Donna Summer is also an uncomplicated choice: other than maybe James Brown and Kraftwerk, no one's work has had greater influence over the history and future direction of dance music. And for a few years, she was an absolute hit machine (for which Giorgio Moroder deserves a portion of the credit). Definitely a worthy addition to the HoF.
None of the other nominees whose careers are winding down/at an end really merit induction: Laura Nyro's career was too short, and her influence divided between performer and songwriter; War made a lot of fun singles, and too many boring albums; Heart is ultimately a very good Led Zep retread; Donovan started out as a Dylan wannabe, and stopped having hits of any kind once he left Mickie Most, so anytime he's had to stand on his own, he's faltered badly. I can't think of anything to say about the rest.
Weak class for me -- I don't feel Cure or GnR are first balloters, and they're the ones I wavered on. These acts don't "feel" quite as special as some of those in the past. I voted Beasties and Freddie King. Also Rush. You left Rush off the list.
ReplyDeleteGood explanation. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThose three were more influential than GnR, starting essentially country rock, new wave, and rap. The trouble with GnR is they represent the end of a movement, not the beginning of one. After Axl's excesses, there was no place for rock to go except back to Nirvana. Speaking of Velvet Underground, Lou Reed isn't even nominated for his solo work?
ReplyDeleteJoan Jett deserves to be in Cleveland he same way Will Clark deserves to be Cooperstown which is to say, for a brief moment their careers seemed destined for superstardom and for years after one hoped for a second big spark, but even their biggest fans can't really make a case for it.
ReplyDeleteI like disco way too much not to want to see Donna Summer in there. Even if I'd grant that disco is the antithesis of "Rock n roll"
ReplyDeleteI put a vote towards Nyro not because I like her music myself, but because I get the sense she's one of those "Musician's musicians" - like I wonder how many really famous singers/singer-songwriters got inspired/influenced by her.
I actually see GnR as a pretty necessary evolutionary step between hair metal and Nirvana. Not necessarily musically, in that I don't think Nirvana would have sounded any different without GnR, but as far as image, aesthetics, and what MTV was interested in and willing to show. Guns and Roses stripped away the cartoonish aspects of Motley Crue, Poison, WASP, etc., and brought the focus back to the music (with a few detours for lyrical controversy) but maintaining a bright and clear enough sound to work on FM radio and MTV.
ReplyDeleteThat surprised me too. Donna and Giorgio revolutionized radio by bringing pure dance music back to the airwaves, as well as recorded orgasms.....
ReplyDeleteOnce again, no Thin Lizzy. For Shame, Hall of Fame, for shame!!!
ReplyDeleteThere's a genre objection to Summer, which we've discussed before: if she's in, what's the argument against Whitney Houston? (Should there be one?)
ReplyDeleteFaces era Rod (when they were trading band/solo albums backed by the band) has to be on the shortlist for greatest frontman ever. He may have turned himself into a feather-haired joke, but damn were the Faces (and those three or four solo albums) something.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, upon reflection and research, I'd put Chic in ahead of Donna Summer in the disco lounge (I'm assuming disco doesn't get a wing and a "lounge" seems appropriate.)
ReplyDeleteI'm changing my mind again. Summer ahead of Chic. I had no idea I would encounter such a Disco Dilemma on a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteI suspect I'd be alone in feeling like Soundgarden is being undervalued here... I think the quality of "Badmotorfinger" and "Superunknown" plus the influence and importance in the Seattle scene of the late-80s and 90s should have more meaning...
ReplyDelete-Daniel
Do my search skills fail me? Have we really never discussed the "Weird Al" exclusion?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2010/06/22/127983640/-weird-al-yankovic-tiny-desk-concert is Stephen Thompson doing a brief recount of his essay from the Essential liner notes.
Your argument works for Appetite for Destruction, but not the parts of the band's career that involved a man with a top hat playing a Les Paul while standing on top of a piano, or any of Axl's dance moves. If anything, GnR was a throwback to the 70s arena rock that may have preceeded hair metal, and while they had more punk influences than Poison, for example, they moved away from them with alacrity.
ReplyDeleteI actually agree--Soundgarden didn't burn as brightly as Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but Superunknown is a really solid album. There is something wrong with Soundgarden getting in before Nirvana (who are eligble next year and, I'd presume, an absolute lock) or Pearl Jam (who are not eligible until 2016, and seem a likely first ballot inductee).
ReplyDeleteAs much as I love Thin Lizzy at its peak (probably Jailbreak, although Bad Reputation rocks hard), they're just on the wrong side of the line. Not a long enough career, and inconsistent except for a very short period of time. Their influence continues to grow with each year, though, and in some unlikely places; the first time I heard Belle & Sebastian's "I'm a Cuckoo," with its familiar twinned lead guitars, I smiled the Rock Snob's smile of recognition. That Stuart Murdoch must have some record collection. Lizzy and Free are my two favorite hard rock bands of the '70's, and their best records (or, at least, well-chosen compilations) are still plenty playable -- they haven't dated as badly as a lot of bands that sold much better back in the day -- but neither band is quite HoF-worthy. Phil Lynott and Paul Kossoff, z"l.
ReplyDeleteEric B. & Rakim - truly revolutionary in their effect on Hip-Hop/Rap. Their influence is still strong and their albums still hold up today. The anti-Hammer. Probably will fall as a victim of the Beasties' nomination.
ReplyDeleteThis is a farce. Still no art rock? Where are King Crimson, Rush, Emerson Lake & Palmer? Roxy Music???
ReplyDeleteYes! That's what I was going to bring up. I'd love to do the Keltner analysis for Weird Al. He's got longevity, cultural relevence, peak success, and love from his peers. Where is Weird Al?
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Chicago is snubbed. A huge band that is certainly as "rock"as Abba(or Donovan) that hasn't been even nominated!
ReplyDelete